“9 Types of Feedback to Boost Student Engagement” by eLearning Industry
https://elearningindustry.com/9-types-of-feedback-boost-student-engagement
9 Effective Types of Feedback
- Appreciation
- Sayback
- Links to Resources
- Questions
- Providing Next Steps
- Providing Guidance
- Sharing Personal Experiences
- Facilitators Connecting Learners
- Providing Encouragement
Three great digital tools that hit on several of these types of feedback are MI Write, Nearpod, and PearDeck.
MI Write: MI Write is a program that improves student writing by focusing on formative assessment for grades 3-12. Included in MI Write is the possibility of peer feedback using teach posed questions to guide the feedback.
- Process of MI Write
- Students respond to a prompt.
- Responses are automatically scored.
- Scores include strengths and weaknesses in 6 areas.
- Based on individual weaknesses, students have assigned lessons to address their weaknesses.
- After completing the lessons, students apply their new learnings by editing and revising.
- Students resubmit and repeat the process.
- Although the scoring is done through a computer algorithm, the process provides students with more feedback than teachers with 150+ students can do.
- Note: I will never take the grade assigned by the computer for a grade in the gradebook. I will always assign grades based on my use of a rubric.
Last week, I spent several days teaching my students to use the program and gave them time to explore all that it offers. As students worked through the minilessons and revised their writing, I could see visible signs of engagement. Kids were cheering for themselves as they saw their scores increase. They took it as a challenge to get the biggest increase. It was enjoyable to watch.
As a teacher with more than 150 students, I struggle with how to give quick and meaningful and frequent feedback to all of my students. MI Write has removed some of that stress.
How my 6th graders rate MI Write: 3.94/5 stars
Nearpod and Pear Deck: Both Nearpod and Pear Deck allow students to be actively engaged in lessons through responding digitally to questions of different types. Nearpod has many lessons already created or teachers may create lessons from scratch. Pear Deck can be used with Google slides or with Microsoft PowerPoint. In PowerPoint, add-ons can be added to turn slides into interactive slides.
I have used both through digital learning and like them both for different reasons. There are times when it is helpful to find Nearpod lessons that are already created for whole class or student-paced lessons. I do not like Nearpod if I have specific content I want to include.
I prefer Pear Deck when I have specific lessons that I want to use. If I have a PowerPoint already created, I prefer to add Pear Deck add-ons to my slides. These ad-ons include writing, drawing, temperature checks, etc
Both Nearpod and Pear Deck allow me to provide immediate feedback to students. For instance, when we studied figurative language earlier this year, I used a write ad-on with a PPT that asked students to type sentences with different types of figurative language. As students typed their responses, I was able to give hints and offer corrections to each student.
The feedback I gave students through Pear Deck was informal and formative and did not have the “threat” of a grade.
How my 6th graders rate Nearpod: 4:24/5 stars
What my students say about Nearpod:
- It is fun and I like the questions.
- Nearpod is really good. It helps me keep up where we are.
- I like the videos and the fun activities.
- Nearpod is easy to use.
- I really like Nearpod because you can participate with what the slides are.
- It is a great way to learn with fun challenges. It really helps information stick and stay stuck in my brain.
- I think Nearpod is a great resource because the teacher and the students can either move at the same pace and do it together, or they can do it at their own pace and do it separately. I also like the fact that all students can participate in different ways.
- I do not like that you have to switch back and forth sometimes.
- I think that Nearpod is not very interesting, and it is sort of difficult to use. But it is very interactive so that is a plus.
- I think that it was very great that the Nearpod can be interactable and have hands on activities that the teachers can see and make sure that all of the students are participating and understand the lesson. I also think that it was good that you can go back to the Nearpod in case you missed something.
- Nearpod is also good, and it lets the students interact with the question.
How my students rate Pear Deck: 3.65/5 stars
What my students say about Pear Deck:
- Nice and easy to use.
- I think that it is a 5 because it is very interactive.
- I like how I can flip through the slides.
- It’s a good learning tool.
- I like the writing comments.
- Pear Deck is another great way to share ideas and learn, but unless the teacher shares his/her screen, I can’t see the ideas of others, and I wish I could. (I probably could set it up for them see responses.)
- It’s an easy way for the teacher to see your answers and notes.
- Pear Deck is a fairly good tool because all of the students can participate in different ways, but it can be a bit challenging because it doesn’t always work very well. (I think this may be teacher error.)
- It is interactive and very fun to learn and make sentences in.
- Pear Deck is kind of like Nearpod, but with more questions and interactive things.
- Pear Deck is fun and lets the students interact with the question. I like it more than Nearpod.
A Teacher's Ponderings 